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Men's Health
Have you ever walked into a room and realized you don’t remember what you’re doing there? Yeah, us too. Well thankfully science finally explains why: It’s the doorway’s fault, a new study finds.
“When you go from room to room, your brain identifies each room as a new event and sets a new memory trace to capture the new event,” says study author Gabriel Radvansky, Ph.D., a psychology professor at the University of Notre Dame.
Like a chapter marker, doorways end old episodes and begin new ones, as far as your brain is concerned. This makes it difficult to retrieve older memories because they’ve already been filed away, Radvansky says.
Radvansky suggests physically carrying a reminder of what your intent is: “For example, if you want to go from the living room to the kitchen to get a snack, you may forget why you went to the kitchen when you get there because this is a new event, and you may have been distracted. But, it would be easier to remember if you walked into the kitchen with something to remind yourself of what you wanted, such as a bowl.”
Don’t keep bowls in the living room? That’s OK. Form your hand into a bowl shape when you walk to the kitchen. If you’re going from room to room to fetch a pair of scissors, hold your index and middle fingers in a scissor shape to help the memory stay intact.
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Leave a Comment:
Thats interesting, I'll have to try that tip out. But I'll probably forget
What about when I think about looking something up, but I've forgotten what it is before I can even get Google loaded?
You forget because your getting senile just admit it!
If you walk toward the kitchen for a snack but forget why you went there, you're not hungry!
I wouldn't believe a word of this scary article if I hadn't found myself in the bathroom the other day and couldn't remember why I went in there. Then, when I caught sight of the toilet, I remembered.
Sometimes the timing is perfect - this is hilarious - thank you!
I've been on the forgot-why-i'm-in-the-kitchen diet for awhile now.
I went into the bedroom and forgot why I was there. Is there something I should have in my hand to remind me? LOL
Science can't explain C.R.S. (Can't Remember STUFF) now they want me to carry something to help me remember why I CRS? I tried to carry something to remind me of what i was going to do and now I have a rope in my hand and I forgot did I loose my horse or find the rope? The nice thing about CRS is I can hide my own Easter eggs! I think.
I can buy the distraction makes you forget option. I'm often distracted and therefore I forget. Now what was I typing about? Oh, yeah, down with politicians!
Here is my solution for this -- go back to the spot in the house where you had the original thought. It will pop back into your head. Works for me every time. And I have never forgotten the second time. Works for my husband, too.
So if you go back to the room where you left your husband, you don't forget him? I bet he's glad of that!
Don't run with scissor hands!
No problem, just do rock or paper instead..
Yeah, errr, um, ahh, hmmmmmm, ah hell................................ HON...EY!!!
I wanted to reply to this story, but I forgot why !!!
This sounds as good an excuse as any.
I never forget I'm gonna do when I enter the restroom....
That's because you carry a BOW(e)L.
LOL! Now THAT's funny! :D
I forgot the word "What" in that sentence... I never forget what I'm....
I guess I'm gonna have to carry a dictionary with me, so I can remember the words I'm going to use....
Hmm what was i just reading? i forget.
Anybody could have written this article. It's full of it.
Radvansky suggests physically carrying a reminder of what your intent is: “For example, if you want to go from the living room to the kitchen to get a snack, you may forget why you went to the kitchen when you get there because this is a new event, and you may have been distracted. But, it would be easier to remember if you walked into the kitchen with something to remind yourself of what you wanted, such as a bowl.”
Okay, so first, I'll go from the living room to the kitchen to get a BOWL, then take that into the living room so that I can go back into the kitchen with it again, hoping that the bowl jogs my memory and reminds me that I went to the kitchen for a SNACK. Unless of course I forget why I'm going into the kitchen when I go to GET the bowl that's going to remind me that I'm going into the kitchen to get a SNACK. Maybe writing "snack" on a post it note kept in the living room would be an easier solution? Post it notes can conveniently be kept in every room, unlike BOWLS.
Unfortunately when i go to the kitchen for a "snack", I don't have to hold my hands like a bowl, because I don't have the luxury of being able to forget what I went there for... That large box in the corner with the double doors on it, serves as a constant reminder.
A-HAH! This explains so much! My solution for this CRS problem is that I just "'return to the scene of the crime", (in other words, the room I just left) It Always seems to work--I remember what I was doing. I don't even stand and stare and ponder it anymore--just turn right around and start all over again!
Ah, now that explains why the stormtroopers in Star Wars were never able to hit Luke Skywalker. They were standing in doorways and so they forgot who they were supposed to be shooting at, so they just shot at anything so they'd look busy in case the supervisor came by!
Two old guys were discussing great restaurants. One guy is raving about a great restaurant he went to but can't remember the name. " Let's see, I'm thinking of a flower, it has thorns, it's usually red", he says and his friend helpfully says "rose?" . Yup the guys says, that's it, rose ! And he turns and shouts into the other room , " Rose, what was the name of that restaurant we ate in last night ? "
That could explain why so many people stop in doorways -- either coming or going -- and block access for everyone else. Now I can excuse them for being so thoughtless, because they actually are!
Now I can stop blaming my lost thoughts on the fact that I killed billions of brain cells by abusing the hell out of them.
I can turn my head and see the room from a different angle and forget what I'm doing.
I always go back to where I was when I first had the thought, it will come back.